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Friday, January 2, 2015

30 Days Money Challenge

Didn't get to save much money last year? Have you ever thought how much you could actually save in a month or a year? 100? 1000? 10,000? Well, challenge yourself to find out! Let's start this new year with "30 Days Money Challenge"! I believe you have come across all sort of saving methods such as the 6 JARS System method and so on, but here's one that focus more on building the saving habit.

30 Days Money Challenge

My Money Jar which using Cookie Jar, you can recycle after CNY!

Like the saying goes, "The habit of saving is far more important than the amount you saved". It's true! You can saved a thousand dollar this month but waste it on the next month. So 30 Days Money Challenge will help you to shape your saving habit! Good habits take discipline, courage and hard work to form on a daily basis. Consistent commitment is what makes a habit!

So, in this simple 30 Days Money Challenge, all you need to do is to double the amount you deposited yesterday. Here's a table for better illustration:

Many people believe that by repeating a task for 21 days consecutively, a habit may be formed. It remains to be a myth on how the magic number 21 came around, but that's not important here. As you may see from the table, there are Phase 1, Phase 2 and Phase 3. These 3 phases are actually representing the process of a habit formation, which were developed by the well know business coach, Tom Bartow. I will just summarize here for you:

Phase 1: The Honeymoon
You may feel that it is easy to accomplish, you are highly motivated to kick start.
Everything just goes smoothly here.

Phase 2: The Fight Thru
Motivation and inspiration wear off. You started to struggle with yourself when reality kicks in.
This is the dilemma part where you will be wondering if you should stop or continue.

Phase 3: Second Nature
You have conquered your own thinking and behavior. The habit is formed!
BUT (yes there's always a but), beware of interruptions as you may back to Phase 2 again!

Ah-hah! So, that magic number 21 probably due to the 3 Phases with 7 days each? Anyhow in our case, the 30 Days Money Challenge will be 10 days each. That pretty much explains The Honeymoon phase where the starting is pretty easy with just 1 dollar and when it gets longer, you started to feel lazy or demotivated in the The Fight Thru phase.

Follow Strictly on Saving DAILY
It's crucial to follow strictly to save daily as 30 Days Money Challenge not just getting you the total sum at the end of 30 days, but more importantly, to build the saving habit! Even though these are just small amounts but they will eventually add up to a big difference. As you could see at the end of 30 days you will get up to 465 dollars! If you feel that 1 dollar saving increment is too easy, feel free to increase the saving increment.

What if I feel like stopping halfway thru?
It's completely normal to have that feeling when The Honeymoon phase is over. But here are few techniques to win over The Fight Thru phase. First, acknowledge or simply realize that you are entering into The Fight Thru phase. Next, remind yourself why have you started this. Simple questions such as "How will I feel if I accomplish this?" or "How will I feel if I just give up easily?". Lastly, relate to your life projection. "What can I do if I accomplished?" and "What my life will be if I stop now? Back to the square one?" Most importantly, come back to read this post again if you feel like giving up.

What's next after 30 Days?
Same as the tagline of YourFinanceDoctor - Earn, Save, Invest, Repeat. Don't be held back by the interruption in Phase 3: Second Nature, where you go easy on yourself after achieving 30 Days Money Challenge. For months with 31 days, take that 1 day as the so called "cheat-day" or I called it the"reward day" (be more positive). So instead of saving that $32, you may use it to treat yourself. So, what's next? Repeat again from 1 dollar. Be it the same saving increment or you may up level to higher saving increment.

With that, I believe this is a SMART goal challenge where it is specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and definitely time based.

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.

Eager to kick start your 30 Days Money Challenge? Here's a downloadable PDF file for you to print out. In case, you want to alter the saving increment, here's the downloadable excel file for you as well.PDF 30 Days Money Challenge - Starting with 1 Dollar (DOWNLOAD HERE)Excel 30 Days Money Challenge (DOWNLOAD HERE)

Next up, I will be sharing on what you can do with that amount of money at the end of 30 days.
Feel free to share to your friend as a challenge for them too!

Yes you are right, there's no difference in the total amount.But as you could read from my post, this is not just about saving but also building the habits. At the same time when you are saving every day, you will be more cautious on spending, especially with our ringgit is weakening.

Now this is just talking about saving for short term 30 days. If is 1 year, 3 years or even longer, then the number of period you save would be important.This is where the power of compounding interest would kicks in. ;)